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Monday, July 8, 2013

Hello Kitchen!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and enjoyed their weekend! We had a great time watching the fireworks, eating ice cream and spending the time with friends and family. Summer always seems to go much faster after the 4th of July.

In addition to the festivities we "finished" up our kitchen! We still have a list of things we want to do but for now, it's at least 75% complete. It makes me so happy seeing the kitchen now. All of the unfinished projects are finished, paint is on the wall, and our bead-board and toe kicks are complete. I'll share what we want to do to be at 100% at the end of the post. First, the before *shudder*:

The kitchen seriously needed some love and love is what we gave it! Here are the "after's":

AHH! Isn't the after such a breath of fresh air? Last week we finally switched out our microwave from a giant one in the corner to one over the stove. I am so happy! Even though we have the island and the breakfast bar, that area right next to the stove is prime real estate when it comes to cooking. I do have "decor" and my Keurig has a new home in that location but it doesn't affect the space for prepping or spreading out.

This view is from the door to the basement looking in. I used to have my fruit in a giant wire basket but being in a milk glass container really makes the color of the fruit pop and takes up less space. The fish will be moved eventually to our basement when we work on adding more furniture for storage! I don't have a lot of cookbooks because I'd rather Pinterest a recipe or search online so what I do have is in the corner with two mason jars as bookends. I'm not sure what to do with the white basket but for now it is holding our wipes and remote. The breakfast bar looks into our kitchen so it is always in reach. With a 3 year old and a 17 month old keeping them out of reach is key!

This view is looking from the dining room into the kitchen. The bead board on the island is what started the whole thing ;). For the record, it was my idea to have the toe kick match the back-splash but my hubby is trying to take all the credit.

I made this growth chart over the weekend. I decided not to share a tutorial because the idea is not mine. I lifted it from Katie Bower of Bower Power and she has a great tutorial over on her blog. The only thing I did differently was to use my Silhouette Cameo to cut the numbers out of vinyl. We already have our first marks on it and I cant wait to see it fill up!

Well that's how our kitchen is looking today! Eventually, we want to replace the flooring with hardwood tile. As you seen in the before photo, our kitchen originally had blue carpet. So we were sort of rushed to get that replaced and in the process the tile job wasn't done the proper way. Seriously, it's so uneven and crooked in person and you might be able to tell if you look close enough in the after photos. Also, I want to find a light fixture for above the sink. We bought one when we purchased the two we have now but I returned it thinking I could find something better. A year later and the spot is still bare! Ya live and ya learn. The door leading to the sun room will be replaced with a full glass one as well. Our house sits in shade so all of the light we can get to come in the better. Finally, we want to re-sand and paint the cabinets the right way. We'd like them to match before we purchase hardware and we'd like to sturdy up the stock cabinets a little more.